Baby Update — 4 Months
Lucy Goose is 4 months old today!!
I know 4 months isn’t typically known as a big baby milestone, but this one feels huge to me. When Jon David was 4 months old, he rode with me on an airplane for the first time, he started rolling over, and he became so much more alert. It’s kind of the end of the newborn phase and on to becoming more of a tiny person.
Lucy is very aware of her surroundings now. I notice that she grabs onto things A LOT lately (especially my hair) and I suspect she might be teething. Nothing is showing under the gums just yet, but she is constantly drooling and gnawing on her fingers.
I finally decided that it was time to move Lucy from her bassinet in our room, to the crib in her room. I’d been putting it off, mostly because I liked being able to see her all night, but also because I knew how much she liked being bundled in. She was never very comfortable on flat surfaces, so I was dreading the transition.
Thankfully, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I feared. It did take about a week of being consistent (and lots of swaddling!) but she is now able to get herself comfortable and drift right off. As hard as it was for me to move her to her own room, it is nice to get up in the morning and take a shower in my bathroom before she gets up. Normally our movements woke her up every morning, and now she is sleeping in more.
Naps are the other area we were having a TON of difficulty with. Not only for my sake (a woman needs an hour to get things done from time to time) but also for hers…she would get so tired during the day and be absolutely miserable. I ended up downloading THIS book, and I really took away so much great information.
Of course, the book was full of contradictions too, and not all methods are for everyone. What I did learn is that I had to stop trying to get Lucy on the nap schedule that I thought she needed, and instead watch for signs of her own sleep “rhythm”. All babies have a rhythm, and most need more sleep than we think. Unfortunately, by the time we notice our baby is tired, they are crying and are so exhausted that adrenaline kicks in, making it harder to fall asleep.
Signs of sleepiness are usually MILD fussiness, irritability, listlessness (zoning out instead of being alert) and possibly wanting to nurse or whatever they use for comfort. What I have noticed with Lucy is that this occurs every hour and a half after her last sleep. We snuggle and feed for about 30 minutes, then I lay her down. So she goes about 2 hours total between naps. Catching it earlier and finding out her rhythm made a HUGE difference in her sleep and her moods. It took a bit to get it down, but now her schedule looks roughly like this:
7:30 – 8ish am — wake up Upon waking, I ususally turn on Lucy’s soother so she can look at it and wake up a little. She usually does better this way instead of immediately yanking her from her crib. Then we play a bit, and she feeds.
9 ish — start winding down and getting ready for nap. Lay down around 930 or 10 am. Sleep for 1 or 2 hours. Repeat process from morning wake up.
12:30 ish — start winding down and get ready for nap. Lay down around 1. Sleep for 1 or 2 hours.
Lucy is usually ready to sleep again around 4, but I give her a bath and start her bedtime routine at 6 (she goes to bed around 730), so it’s kind of a weird time for a nap. Usually I’ll lay her down in the living room for a catnap. As she gets older, her morning nap will be around 10, and then she will have another nap around 2ish, instead of 3 naps.
I know that this information is probably super boring to some of you, but I also know how hard it is when you have a little one who isn’t sleeping…so I just want to share what worked for me.
Of course, now that we have the sleep thing down, I’m sure she will present me with a new challenge. How long until I have to worry about make-up and dating, again?
I’d love for you to share any baby sleep tips that worked for you…I really love when moms can bounce ideas off one another and share their struggles instead of being judgy — we need more of that!!
Happy 4 months, Miss Lucy!! You wear me out, but you remind me every day of how lucky I am…you are beautiful inside and out, and I look forward to getting to know you even better.
Have a happy Tuesday!
Thanks for visiting my blog! I realize you could be doing more important things with your time. Like watching the news or washing socks. I hope you stay awhile. Much more fun than socks, I promise. 
Happy 4 months to Lucy! Your photos are wonderful, I love the softness of light in them and little Lucy is of course, just adorable.
Happy 4 months to your sweet baby and YOU! My mom has always said that a child’s birthday (or milestones) are a time to celebrate the mama. Now that my babies are almost 3 and 5 I can actually relate to the sleeping thing. I have found that as they grow they adjust sleep patterns constantly. Right now my almost 3 year old is starting to wake up from what I think might be nightmares. She is also learning to sleep without a diaper (she is already potty trained so now working on sleeping). My almost 5 year old, who was never easy to get to sleep, just had a huge change when we got her a new bed. She had a toddler bed and we got her a real twin bed (which both my girls insisted on having pushed together so they could sleep together) and she is sleeping so well. She just needed a bigger bed. It sounds like you have really good instincts with baby sleep. I had one great sleeper and one that wasn’t. You never know what you are going to get. ha ha. Good luck with the next 4 months! Love seeing your pics and hearing your stories. And yes, we need to be supportive, celebrate being mamas, and stop judging. love it!
She is soooo cute/beautiful! I want to reach through my computer screen and hug her, I also want to steal her but in a not creepy way :)
I have 2 younger sisters and from experience the moment they hit 14/15/16 you want to run and take cover! My sister who is 14 and a half has these moods that last for days and she won’t snap out of them, she also likes to pick fights over little. Meanwhile my other sister who is 16 is just plain stubborn and refuses to do anything. Hopefully by the time Lucy reaches those ages they will have created some magic pill or something to stop those moods :)
Also can I just say I think you should get a Mummy’s Princess apron made for when she begins to help out in the kitchen :) one of my earliest memorys was helping my Mum bake muffins in the kitchen I recall sifting the flour and getting it all over the bench :)
Such a beautiful baby girl, your pictures are so lovely. I enjoy your blog a lot.
Such a sweet blessing. Thank you for sharing :).
My baby, baby is now three. So, I’m really enjoying the precious updates.
My goodness, she looks so much like Jon David. It really is the ears and chin.
I’m so impressed with what an awesome big brother he is.
Adorable!
And Congrats again,
C.J.
Thank you for sharing! At 36 weeks pregnant, my husband and I are soaking up a chapter of Babywise every night and I’ll be honest, the sleep routine with feed and wake times is seriously daunting. I just hope I’m aware enough to recognize her sleepy signs, her hunger signs, etc…
Thanks for sharing your struggles and successes, and happy 4 months to Lucy!
She’s adorable!
Another thing I noticed about my kids is their eyelids would turn pinkish-purple. When I saw that, I would get them into their bed right away. That was the cue they were ready to sleep.
My baby is just a few weeks younger than Lucy, and that is what her day looks like. She stays up later though. I have tried putting her to bed earlier, but she always wakes up for a 9 o’clock feeding. I confess that I still put her in the swing to nap. Her naps are so short if she sleeps in her bed, but if she naps in the swing she gets the sleep she needs. However, she will sleep 10 hours in her bed at night. She’s a nut!
Happy 4 months Lucy!! You and I were pregnant at the same time and I had my daughter 2 1/2 weeks before Lucy was born so I love reading your baby updates since they’re so close in age! She’s adorable, keep up the good work mama! :)
Lucy is absolutely darling. Love those easter pictures!
Lucy is such a pretty baby, and your pictures of her are precious. You are such a smart Mama to pay attention to her sleep rhythm and work your day around it. I was able to do this, and I do remember my babies’ rhythms changed from month to month… so flexibility was the name of the game. Hope you get a good nap or two this week! ;)
I could just nibble those toes!
I’m jealous! My daughter is 15 weeks (11/20/12) and is a terrible napper :-( When we finally get her down for a nap, she awakens at the 45 minute mark which is when the sleep cycle transitions and can’t soothe herself back to sleep. Do you lie her down drowsy or asleep? I’m really struggling with naps! Nighttime is great though.
Sometimes I lay her down fully asleep, if she happens to fall asleep nursing. Most times though, she is just drowsy. We had trouble with her waking up too, and I learned to pay attention because sometimes she was crying, which meant that I needed to get her, but sometimes she was just fussing a little, which meant she was having trouble getting comfortable. I’d go in and pat her quietly in the dark and try to get her back asleep, and she’s gotten a lot better at soothing.
She’s so cute I can hardly stand it!!
She’s so beautiful! I thought it was the strangest thing, I start back working when my daughter was 4 months old & got off at 4:30. By 5 she was crying and very tired, but I was afraid to let her sleep because I wanted to go to bed at 7:30 also, but 1 night I got tired of fighting her to stay up and put her in her crib and she slept for like 30 to 45 minutes, got up and was fine & still went to bed at 7:30 – 8:00, so apparently she needed it and it was great for me, because I could start dinner without a very fussy little girl. Win Win!
She is so beautiful!! You must be having so much fun with the sweet little girl clothes.
She is beyond precious!
Lucy, you are so pretty in pink! Pink is you. This is my favorite bow, just the right size. Love when your mom gives us updates on your little life! p.s. Kristan, so happy Lucy is sleeping better. I had a period when my son woke up every night for two months. (He’d been a great sleeper before, never woke up during the night.) He was 18 months old. His father had gone on a two month trip and I took him to the airport to see him off. I think somehow it upset him and he couldn’t verbalize it but maybe he had nightmares? I read somewhere NOT to pick him up as he’d get used to it, then expect it. I’d stumble into his room where he’d be crying and standing at his crib. I’d gently put him back down, pat him on his back, say something soothing, and shuffle back to bed. I don’t think I really woke up myself, just sleep walked. It worked for me and him. Happily, it stopped after his dad got home and he never woke up at night again! We all need to do what works for us and our baby. I was always open to listening to what other mother’s did. I never considered it judgmental, just advice. Take it or leave it!
Babies sleep? Are you sure? Wow! That’s news to me! My experience was that babies never sleep…until they become teenagers…and then a nuclear war can’t wake them up!! Boy, I sure wish that someone had told me that babies sleep all those years ago!
she is so sweet!! and boy howdy she is looking alot like her big bro….. enjoy her they grow so stinkin fast!!
I love her! Sounds like you all are both doing great! I love that you are open to doing whatever works for you both. I’d say taht’s the best advice. No strict routine works for anyone but the person who designed it. Good for you for reading your baby and yourself and working it out.
Hugs! Keep up the great work!
Lucy’s such a sweet little pea! You’re so lucky, Kristan <3
Lucy is so beautiful! We loosely followed the same book for Judah and he turned out to be one of the best sleepers. Hopefully this next baby is just as easy!
Look @ those li’l toes!
And that li’l mouth!
Lucy looks like a live doll.
SO cute!!!
Every time I see her picture I cannot get over how much she looks like Jon David. She is so beautiful Kristan.